A look at Matt Niskanen

This week we will open Frozen Pool class with a quick tutorial in definitions.

opportunist

op·por·tun·ist/ˌäpərˈt(y)o͞onist/

Noun:  A person who exploits circumstances to gain immediate advantage rather than being guided by principles or plans.

I'll just let that sink in for a moment. Now that we have that squared away, I'll conveniently segue into my player of interest. This player is the quintessential ride 'em while he's hot pick-up.

Matt Niskanen

Labeled as an underachiever and ignored at draft tables since forever, Matt Niskanen never could take his game to the next level after a breakthrough 35 point 2008-2009 season. He quickly regressed into a beautiful disaster in Dallas and rarely showed further glimpses of his first round pedigree. Until now…

desperation

des·per·a·tion/ˌdespəˈrāSHən/

Noun:  A state of despair, typically one that results in rash or extreme behavior

What does a coach do when almost his entire defense corp is hurt? To answer this ponderous question, let's have analyze it with Frozen Pool mathematics, shall we?

Does that make sense? Perhaps. Was I a colossal failure in math? Absolutely!

Moving along…

With six points in his last six games, Matt Niskanen is turning even more heads with his concurrent four point production on the power play.

Even Strength Line Combinations

Even Strength Line Production

Power Play Line Combinations

Power Play Line Production

Niskanen is loving life in the top pairing (man did I really say that?) with Brooks Orpik.  In the past three games, he's been used as the power play quarterback. This situational use shouldn't be anything new to fantasy owners of when he was in Dallas. He was given the reigns countless times but Robidas eventually ended the party. The difference between then and now you ask? Well this time, he's actually been effective.

What's even more impressive from a fantasy perspective is that he's actually the top Yahoo Roto defensemen over the past two weeks too. Think I'm a scumbag liar? Check these numbers out from the Frozen Pool RotoRanker and get back to me.

And we're back! How does that Christmas Crow taste?

As always I can be reached at @frozenpool and a free 7 day Frozen Pool trial awaits you if you haven't already heard!

I'll be away over the holidays but in the mean time, Merry Christmas and enjoy the World Junior Championship!

Go Canada